Samsung is in trouble. Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Android

In a not-exactly-happy New Year message sent to employees, Samsung chief executive Kwon Oh-hyun has warned that growth will continue to slow over the course of 2016 — with the reason being weak global economies and increased competition from the likes of Apple.

Ford is bringing CarPlay and Android Auto to its new vehicles. Photo: Ford

Ford has announced that both Apple’s CarPlay and Android Auto are set to be available for all its 2017 vehicles equipped with SYNC 3, beginning with the new Ford Escape.

Damn that easy-to-use grid of apps! Photo: Apple

The arrival of the original iPhone may have fundamentally changed Google’s plans for its Android smartphone platform, but according to Google’s Vice President of Design, Matias Duarte, Apple’s iOS layout — consisting of grids of apps icons — is disappointingly stagnant.

“[The iPhone] crystallised a lot of other things that were kind of stayed even by that point,” Duarte told Wired in an interview, “like the rows of icons, which don’t scale very well. This idea of a tiny grid that you manually curate starts to feel very heavy and burdensome.”

China argues new laws are necessary to keep citizens safe. Photo: Apple

China’s Foreign Ministry said today that U.S. tech companies have nothing to fear from the country’s new anti-terrorism law, which could require companies to create “back doors” in products, or to hand over encryption information to the Chinese government.

The Fab Four are coming to streaming music services everywhere. Photo: The Beatles

Forget The Ed Sullivan Show, The Beatles are coming to Apple Music, Google Play, and a variety of other online streaming music services — and just in time for Christmas, too.

Starting Christmas Eve, the Fab Four will be available for your listening pleasure on Apple Music, Spotify, Slacker, Tidal, Microsoft’s Groove, Rhapsody, Deezer, Google Play, and Amazon Prime.